


Ain't that the biggest tragedy you ever heard?

by AlexZorlok



Category: Chaos Walking - Patrick Ness
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Missing Scene, No Dialogue, aka Davy is angsty about Todd and then finds comfort in him, only Davy's journey with Todd and morals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 15:00:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexZorlok/pseuds/AlexZorlok
Summary: "And there's Angharrad. Davy musta brought her. (So's my ma's book. I'll bet Davy brought that, too.)"—The Ask and The Answer, page 430orDavy gets attached to Todd.





	Ain't that the biggest tragedy you ever heard?

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what was there about those quotes, especially in the middle of all the post Cathedral explosion drama, but they spoke volumes to me about Davy's character.

Davy Prentiss Jr doesn’t remember his ma. Not any more than any other kid in Prentisstown does, anyway, tho maybe more than Todd Hewitt does. There are many things he doesn’t remember that an average Man of Prentisstown would: he was two, three at most years old when all the women died, and of course he has never lived in the world without Noise, in the world without history of The Spackle War. He is still a man, tho, ‘spite all of that. The most important man of Prentisstown after his Pa, no matter what those pretentious Mr O’Hare or Mr Tate might think of themselves — they think they are worth something just because Pa lets them near, Davy sees it in their Noise along with the things aimed directly at him that they ain’t even trying to hide, thinking he ain’t catching on, that he too young to understand. Stupid.

They still call him Mr Prentiss Jr. They have to, now that he’s a man, and that makes him feel good. Finally, he thinks.

Pa calls him David, and that feels good, too, feels important. His name is Davy Prentiss Jr, and that alone speaks of all the power he holds: the name of his Pa, the name of this effing town all those whirlers live in. He’s ** _Davy bloody Prentiss_**, and may the New World fear that name.

His ma called him Davy. He doesn’t remember that, he doesn’t, but he _ knows_. That’s how things work with Noise, sometimes; people lie, and they lie so much that you know that they lie but you stop caring enough to distinguish what they lie about, but some thoughts also tell the truth, and you can catch memories in your own Noise, memories you didn’t even know you had, but now you do. It’s one of them, and Davy treasures that, keeping it on the back of his head where the memory came from, in the first place.

Davy is a man of Prentisstown, and he doesn’t get attached to things. You should never love anything too much, else it can control you — that was one of the first things Pa taught him — a rule of survival, and a basis of leadership. Love is a weakness, and it’s lame anyway. As if it could move you forward.

What Davy does is: he hates Todd Hewitt. Hate is different, hate is something you’re _ s’posed _ to feel. It’s a feeling that’s strong, and the one you don’t need to hide; if you hate someone enough, it gives you a reason to take over them, hence you get more power and fame. And Todd Hewitt? He is so small it’s hilarious, the youngest boy in town, soon to be the only one, and Davy hates him with all he’s got. He used to call him Davy, too, tho now he can’t, and that makes him look even smaller, what with that ‘Mr Prentiss Jr—’ buzzing in his annoyingly loud Noise. Todd Hewitt’s Pa still calls him Davy, tho, and _ that _ doesn’t feel nice— but only Cillian Boyde isn’t his Pa, is he? Nor is Bennison Moore, for this matter, because Todd is an orphan, having lost not only his ma, like everyone else, but his Pa, too, and how lame is _ that _? Ha!

Todd Hewitt is an abominashun, no better than those sheep he’s herdin, and Davy is more than happy to make him run around the woods some in this little game of hide-n-seek. Even tho he thinks Todd ain’t worth a hair on his Pa’s head, but _ Pa _wants him, so who does Todd think he is to run away.

And maybe that’s tough. Tougher than anything he had to go thru back at home, back in Prentisstown. Davy thought what he did to Mr Gault was dirty, but Mr Gault deserved it, breaking the laws so willingly, just asking to be punished over and over again. And he looked up at him, calling his Pa a monster, pleading to Davy to have mercy, to let him go— 

But that was when _ Davy _ became _ Mr Prentiss Jr_, so Mr Gault should have known better.

So. Running around is dirty, and that’s not even war. His Pa says that war makes real men out of people, so Davy doesn’t get why he isn’t on the front yet, but he also says that Davy is the only one he can trust to catch Todd Hewitt, so may Davy be damned if he doesn’t do everything in his power to. Even if he ain’t seeing what he would want Todd bloody Hewitt for.

Pa had never put so much faith in him before so.

Davy doesn’t ride around saying ‘effing’ — that’s for kids like Todd, what even — but he curses everything and everyone, tending to all the bruises and wounds he’s got, lucky that his leg ain’t broken, but that’s a hell of dirty work to do for one boy, and _ effing _ Deadfall ain’t helping, not even responding to Davy calling him half the time (until he gives in and gently calls for ‘Acorn’, his teeth clenched, trying not to weep out loud because it’s already all over his Noise, and he tries to shut it down, altho he knows Pa ain’t anywhere near, but if he was, if he _ heard_, he would scold him again for being so ungrateful and lazy and—)— 

He doesn’t catch Todd, and he wonders if Pa putting the two of them to work together in _ New _Prentisstown is a punishment for that. Because Davy hates Todd, would love to turn his life into a torment, but he also gets sick of seeing him already the first he sees his Pa smiling at the boy.

Davy spent all that time trying to catch him, to stop the fleeing boy and maybe even have a joy of executing him himself, and now Todd ain’t even dead at all.

He doesn’t really get it.

His limbs are itching, and his lip is bleeding from a cut he got fighting Todd in the mud earlier in the morning. He’s got a room above the stables, above both Deadfall and Todd Hewitt’s new horse, which is stupid, because Todd doesn’t even know how to ride a horse properly, and it’s a pleasure to see him trying (and failing), looking all terrified into the eyes of a crazy animal. The room stinks, and his bed does, too, but it’s better than sleeping in a tent on a wet grass and fighting off flies, so Davy falls asleep the first night faster than he can properly think about it.

Davy doesn’t have that many belongings on his hands, and one of them is now Todd Hewitt’s ma’s book that he threw under his bed and didn’t even bother opening. Tho he did, the first time, to see if he can find anything he could later tease Todd about, but his eyes ran through the first page, and he suddenly started feeling sick. Out of boredom, probably.

Todd Hewitt’s ma wrote him a _ book_. Unbelievable. Unbelievably lame, better said. And Todd is so stupid he can’t even read, apparently, another thing Davy is superior to him in, because he can read, but Davy’s ma didn’t leave him a book or anything, not even a note saying how much she loved him, or how she _ hopes_, as much as Davy enjoys mocking this weak word, for his bright future— 

Maybe Davy doesn’t sleep so well after all.

One day Davy thinks about Bennison Moore, and he feels cold sweat running down his spine at the thought. At the memory. Even tho he is long dead, and whatever, but Davy can’t even bring himself to actually remember the look of his dead body, couldn’t if he wanted to, because it was so dirty out there, all mud and blood and pain, and effing Deadfall almost trying to throw him off, and Davy just didn’t care, didn’t care anymore, even knowing he was so close to catching Todd Hewitt, and he just stumbled back, to the opposite way from the bushes the body fell in. Because screw Bennison Moore and screw Todd bloody Hewitt for making themselves so important his Pa won't even—

Davy looks over at Todd and he doesn’t bring Ben’s name ever again. Shuts it deep down, deeper than even that tiny bit of a memory he has of his ma, because God forbid Todd ever sees that, sees the blood Davy saw in front of his eyes, and hears stumbling and grunting. Davy doesn’t ever bring anything up again anymore, if he thinks it will turn into a big fight.

His Pa calls Todd ‘tender’, and it’s hilarious, and Davy rolls the word around his tongue in a mocking manner like he hasn’t enjoyed for a long time. Only that now it doesn’t appeal to the boy — the _ man_ so much anymore, when he’s just frowning and whispering those effing words he got from his Pa and frowning again. And it’s all ‘shut up, Davy’, and ‘get back to work’ to the Spackle, and it all gives Davy a headache like the whole ‘I am The Circle’ business did when he tries it himself, and his Noise can only throw question marks covered in annoyance at Todd, and he doesn’t get it, doesn’t get what his Pa wants, and if Todd is succeeding, but he doesn’t look too happy about it, so.

Davy is a coward, and he can barely admit it to himself, but he finds it easier to admit to Todd, subtly, and he isn’t sure if it is because Todd doesn’t seem to care at all, because he prolly hates him as much as Davy hates — _ used to hate _ — him, or if it’s because Todd cares _ too much_.

They are given new uniforms, and, even tho the bed still stinks like horses, it feels a little nicer to sleep in. Davy saw the room Todd sleeps in once, and sometimes he thinks that maybe it would be cool for them share this one, or that one — the thought is so fleeting in his head Davy doesn’t even mind the fact that sleeping in Todd’s room would be sleeping in a jail cell, — and whatnot since they are already spending all the time together. It would do better for Todd than sharing his space with that abominashun of Mr Ledger, the former Mayor or whoever he was. Davy wouldn’t dare bringing it up to his Pa. He barely ever gets to talk to him anymore, but he thinks that maybe, maybe, he would bring it up himself one day.

His Pa calls Todd his son, and it both sends an ache into Davy’s heart, and it makes his Noise light up with joy and pride, because Todd is his brother, and it feels like his stupid innocence is back for a moment when he shaked his, _ their _Pa’s hand, and he’s not sure if it’s a shadow of a smile he catches on his face, but he would hope so. Todd doesn’t laugh at his jokes and his Noise is still full with emptiness, but it’s like he looks at him softer.

Davy’s Noise races with worry and confusion and some rage when he hears about the explosion in the Cathedral, and he doesn’t know what to think about that girl Viola being involved, but he gets to the place as fast as he can once his Pa tells him about it. They are going to the building of The Ask, and Davy knows what’s coming, and he also sees how weak Todd is after what’s happened. But he sends his unconscious body a look of determination mixed with worry: he’s **_Todd bloody Hewitt_**, and nothing can bring him down.

His Pa tells him to hurry, but he takes his time to take care of Todd’s horse — Angharrad, she’s called Angharrad — and then picks his ma’s book out of ruins and carefully puts it into his bag. Todd is going to wake up soon, and if he’s going to need these, Davy will make sure he gets them. 

If there is one thing he knows about this planet, it is that Todd Hewitt is worth everything.


End file.
